Show oj I 1 ato RITZ I 1 I 1 by ROBERT mcshane Z 11 sed by wo app ua union 5 WORLDS W heavyweight cham plon pion joe louis has lost much of his old sharpness that was pain fully evident late in march when one abe simon a pound brawler whose right kand hand punch traveled strictly under false pretenses weathered 12 full rounds against the bomber indeed shadow simon was only a couple of rounds away from being even on points when referee sam henessey stopped the fight abe was figured to go not more than two or three rounds lie he was to be just another victim in louis buina buin bum a month club instead the long island giant gave joe enough headaches to cause promoter mike jacobs to make a rematch for may 10 18 in new york this the first poor exhibition chalked up against louis in a couple of recent matches the bomber live up to the killer label attached to him early in his career he have too much trouble winning but he very well r M 1 1 JOE LOUIS miss neither mccoy nor burman barman will go down in pugilistic history as dangerous fighters busy champion ion J joe oe has defended d his title IS 15 times since he won it from james J braddock the cinderella man in corald corals key park chicago june jane 22 1939 thirteen of his title defenses have been won via the knockout route r on te only two challengers tommy farr and arturo Godoy have gone the limit the present day louis has c hanged changed no longer does he have his bis wholehearted enthusiasm for supervised per mayhem his urge for destruction st has been dulled by a continuous diet ot of soggy opponents that however does not mean that louis cant revert to his earlier torm form given a challenger worthy of his respect one with a chance to win louis would show the old flash which brought him the title thwarted plot early in joes career as champion cham pion it was predicted that eventually he be would lick himself the louis longing for or fried chicken and plenty of sleep was scheduled to turn him into a fat jolly lad of about pounds then to complete the story some earnest young white hope not max baer would whop him on the law jaw and relegate him to obscurity it if not u DI oblivion joe think much of that plot year after year h he has been crawling into the ring at or looking the same as he did babkin back in 1937 he has refused to beat himself H his is fights have been so numerous that he cou get out of condition the th c hange change has been in his mental attl ude tude no longer does he feel it necessary to annihilate an opponent in six minutes of boxing it if he thought it t essential chances are that he could handle the assignment as aas ly ily as he did a couple of years ago i not ot so colossal its true that joe looked considerably less than colossal in his last three ahree fights he the far famed fi fighting machine of old instead he be was little more than a journeyman heavy heavyweight weight ile he worked lard hard for his victories much harder than ban he once did its equally true however that a man wont always give his best if it t necessary no heavyweight champion in the citory of the ring has las fought as many fights after capturing the title or has spent as many tedious hours in training louis next real test will come in june une when he meets billy conn a pound light heavyweight eight who makes up tip in speed and courage what he ie lacks in weight and punch conn is dead game and one of best boxers louis is ii smart enough to know that he be must be ready for him for that reason it should be one of the years best title fights sports shorts i C L the last heavyweight championship bare knuckle bout was fought july 8 1889 john L sullivan beat jake kilrain in 75 rounds falong long island university most recent school to abandon intercollegiate football did so because oi c unsettled world conditions C L A modern notre dame record of 1062 points was scored by this years basketball team which won 17 ot of its 22 games the average of points per game |